The total Mobile Money transactions in the first 10 months of 2023 reached a record ¢1.527 trillion cedis, the Bank of Ghana has disclosed.

This is compared with about ¢844.97 billion recorded during the same period in 2022.

In the first eight months of 2023, the total mobile money transactions stood at ¢1.190 trillion.

The figures from the Central Bank showed that the month of October 2023 recorded the biggest mobile money transaction value of ¢179.2 billion.

According to the September 2023 Summary of Economic and Financial Data by the Bank of Ghana, the value of mobile money transactions in January 2023 stood at ¢130.1 billion, compared with ¢76.2 billion during the same period in 2022.

It surged to ¢134.0 billion in February 2023 (February 2022: ¢76.5 billion) and subsequently to ¢147.5 billion in March 2023 (March 2022: ¢90.5 billion).

It, however, fell to ¢138.8 billion in April 2023 (¢87.7 billion), but shot up to ¢159.7 billion in May 2023 (May 2022: ¢71.4 billion) before declining slightly to ¢149.4 billion in June 2023 (June 2022: ¢77.1 billion).

But it achieved a then-record transaction of ¢169.6 billion in July 2023, before declining to ¢161.8 billion in August 2023.  It again fell to ¢157.0 billion in September 2023 (¢88.2 billion: September 2022) before hitting an all-time record of ¢179.2 billion in October 2023.

Despite the impressive performance of mobile money, it is unclear whether the government is meeting the Electronic Transfer Levy (E-Levy) target for 2023.

On January 11, 2023, the government reduced the tax rate on electronic transactions from 1.5% to 1.0%. There have since been calls for the rate to be reduced further to 0.5% to encourage many people to avoid dodging payment of the levy.